Eating at the Bloodstained
Bistro can be hazardous to amateur detective Minx Tobin’s health. So why does
she continue to dine at this restaurant?

TO LIVE... AND DIE IN L.A.

Newly
relocated Minx Tobin likes to help her friends. She also has a knack for
solving puzzles. A huge puzzle in the form of a dead body soon gets dropped
into her lap. Did waitress Brandi Evans murder her ex-boyfriend? Minx doesn’t
think so, but can she crack the Case of the Bloodstained Bistro?

Overworked homicide lieutenant Gabe Harris has his fill of women... and dead
bodies. The women he can handle. The dead bodies-- unfortunately they keep
piling up. But on this particular case he meets a young woman that not only
impedes his investigation, but she also has no interest in him. A healthy ego
like his can’t handle that. He’ll have to keep an eye on Ms. Minx Tobin.

Scene Set-Up:

Ona whim, Homicide lieutenant
Gabe Harris offers to take Minx Tobin, a woman involved with a murder suspect,
to dinner.

Excerpt:

The Tobin woman had been
surprised by his offer of dinner, but not as surprised as he was himself. Gabe
drove onto Santa Monica Boulevard all the while wondering what the hell he had
been thinking.

She'd been right; strictly
speaking, about fraternizing with a suspect. He was mixing pleasure with official
police business. Dynamite that was guaranteed to explode in his face.

He glanced over at his
reluctant passenger. Sitting stiffly in the passenger seat, she held her
handbag against her chest as if it were a shield offering protection.

Not that she'd need it
against him; she wasn't his type. She was lean and athletic. He preferred his
women to be of the buxom variety.

And, come to think of it, he
might not be her type either. She seemed to have a preference for Brandi Evans'
company.

"Where are we going to
eat?" Minx asked, turning her dark eyed gaze on him.

Minx. What a helluva name.
She hadn't like it when he used it. Her plump lips had turned down
imperceptibly. He'd noticed though. It was his job to be observant.

He stopped at a light and looked
over at her again. "I thought since we both seem to gravitate toward
Valentin's, we'd go there."

She didn't comment. By the
narrowing of her eyes, he could tell she was in a snit. Perhaps he couldn't
blame her. She'd just eaten at the bistro last night, although she wasn't aware
that he knew that fact.

He parked alongside
Valentin's and turned off the engine before noticing the sign on the door
proclaiming the bistro to be closed.

"That's strange,"
he said, more to himself than to the woman.

"It certainly is,"
she agreed. "I was just here last night. I sure hope it's not closed
permanently."

Gabe started up the car
again. "Maybe Valentin had an emergency." Whatever was the reason,
he'd have to check it out. Later.

So now what? This little
tête-à-tête with Minx Tobin was turning out to be a really lousy idea.